The ongoing development and expansion of data networks often involves balancing scalability and modularity of networking equipment against ease of connectivity and preferable form factors. For example, for larger-scale enterprise infrastructure deployments, a number of network switches are often incorporated into a single network switching chassis that has a relatively compact form factor and reduces the number of cables between the network switches by using a shared backplane. However, deployment of a network switching chassis often involves a significant upfront capital expense. Moreover, a network switching chassis provides a relatively large amount of functional capacity that may not be fully utilized for a particular deployment, even if demand is projected to grow.
For smaller and more scalable deployment demands, a number of network switches are often connected in a stacked arrangement. The stacked arrangement provides enhanced scalability and modularity as compared to the aforementioned single network switching chassis. The stacked arrangement often involves a smaller upfront capital expense, and allows capital expenses to be distributed over time in response to demand for network growth. However, there are a number of problems with the stacked arrangement. As the stacked arrangement grows, separate data stacking cables are used to enable high speed switching of packet traffic between network switches. Furthermore, separate power stacking cables are used to enable high power redundancy between network switches. A stacked arrangement with four network switches, for example, uses four data stacking cables and four power stacking cables to connect the network switches in a ring topology.
The separate data stacking and power stacking cables are both expensive and cumbersome. Furthermore, the number of cables used to connect the network switches in a stacked arrangement leads to installation errors, which, in turn, causes degradation of network up-time and performance.
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